Insightful, informed, and at times controversial in its conclusions, A Short History of Medicine offers an exceptional introduction to the major and many minor facets of its subject.

In this lively, learned, and wholly engrossing volume, Frank González-Crussi presents a brief yet authoritative five-hundred-year history of the science, the philosophy, and the controversies of modern medicine. While this illuminating work mainly explores Western medicine over the past five centuries, González-Crussi also describes how modern medicine’s roots extend to both Greco-Roman antiquity and Eastern medical traditions.

Covered here in engaging detail are the birth of anatomy and the practice of dissections; the transformation of surgery from a gruesome art to a sophisticated medical specialty; a short history of infectious diseases; the evolution of the diagnostic process; advances in obstetrics and anesthesia; and modern psychiatric therapies and the challenges facing organized medicine today.

Written by a renowned author and educator, this book gives us the very essence of our search to mitigate suffering, save lives, and unlock the mysteries of the human animal.

Quotes & Awards

“John McDonough’s familiar voice—breathy but warm and expressive—is a welcoming guide through the material, which might otherwise have a clinical tone. Like a good doctor, McDonough has a reassuring manner.”

About the Author

Frank González-Crussi is professor emeritus of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the author of Suspended Animation: Six Essays on the Preservation of Bodily Parts, a New York Times Notable Book; The Five Senses, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist; and Notes of an Anatomist, winner of the Nonfiction First Prize of the Society for Midland Authors. He lives in Chicago.

About the Narrator

John McDonough, one of AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voices, has narrated dozens of audiobooks, and won eleven Earphones Awards. He is known for his narrations of children’s books, including Robert McCloskey’s Centerburg Tales and Albert Marrin’s Commander-in-Chief Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Outside of his audiobook work, he has starred in a revival of Captain Kangaroo on the Fox Network.

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